(And why should you care?)

The recession is over.  Ask any economic technician. You fought the war, you survived, and you’re ready to get back to business as usual.  You spent most of your professional life in a pre-recession world.

Please hear this.  That world is never coming back.

The recession changed the way we live.  Our behaviors.  Our expectations.  Our innocence.  Running your business and selling your customers will be dramatically different in the future.

But… we’re not “in the future” yet, either.

We are in recovery.  It has unique opportunities and characteristics.  And it’s going to last for years.

The recovery is much more than a time of transition.  It’ll be purifying.

Companies that stubbornly hold on to pre-recession thinking are fatalists.  At best, they will be among the last to embrace new realities. And they’ll be outdistanced by a vanguard of fast-adapting businesses who are  – daily — repurposing fundamental marketing processes.

The recession war is over.

The recovery battle has begun.

What won’t change

• The power of a dedicated marketing strategy.

• Breakthrough creative, predicated on that strategy.

• Understanding each customer and answering his needs.

• Getting dramatically more business from frequent buyers.

What will change

• The language you use with your audiences.

• A sole dependency on traditional media to generate business.

• The death of “mass-marketing”.  The birth of individual relationships.

• A rededication to retention that will redefine loyalty.